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Document Details :

Title: The Indian Ocean and the Globalisation of the Ancient World
Author(s): SELAND, Eivind Heldaas
Journal: Ancient West & East
Volume: 7    Date: 2008   
Pages: 67-79
DOI: 10.2143/AWE.7.0.2033253

Abstract :
Evidence from the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea in the ancient period suggests that longdistance trade led to cultural standardisation and economic interdependence across vast distances. Such processes closely resemble those labelled ‘globalisation’ with regard to the contemporary world. Social scientists and historians have preferred to reserve this term for the modern period. While the ancient world was never global in a geographical sense, I argue that such processes, ancient or modern, are always studied within perceived rather than physical worlds, and that if the ancient world was not globalised, it certainly was ‘oikoumenised’.

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